Day
9 – June 7, 1981:
Today, we took off on a trip to the
village of Luzerne, Switzerland to shop for watches and cuckoo clocks (I was
able to buy a small cuckoo clock).
Afterward, we were allowed to walk around the town to see the sights,
but we did no other shopping because it was Sunday and most of the shops were
closed.
Voni, Gloria and I stopped for a beer at
a sidewalk cafe after walking around a while.
Then, we were supposed to meet everyone else at the restaurant near the
Kongresshaus in town for lunch.
After lunch, I wanted to make a long
distance phone call to my sister, Saz (a.k.a. Sandy) to see how things were
going at home, and to that end, I ran all the way to the Bell Building (asking
for directions in French the whole way there), only to find it closed. So, I ran all the way back to the bus.
After that, we boarded to bus to go see
Titlis Mountain, which is 10,000 feet high.
This was an optional excursion up the mountain, but Gloria didn’t want
to go, so we dropped her off in Engleberg, Switzerland to shop. It took a tram car and 4 gondolas to reach
the very top, and was the view ever spectacular! Up at the top, we had snowball fights, took
pictures (of course) and saw the Eisgrotte (ice cave), and bought souvenirs (of
course). Then, we descended the
mountain, and picked up Gloria and another woman who went with her, and
returned to the hotel.
Day
10 – June 8, 1981:
Today, after getting ready and eating
breakfast, we took off for Innsbruck, Austria at 6:30 am. On the way, we stopped in Vaduz, Lichtenstein
for about ¾ - 1 hour to shop and have tea.
This is an extremely small country.
Then, about an hour later, we stopped for an early lunch in a small town
in Austria (the name of the village eludes me though). We weren’t supposed to get there until about
11:00 am, but because we were too early in arriving there, we walked around and
soon came upon a small church and graveyard.
It was very pretty and we took some pictures of it. After lunch, we set out for Innsbruck,
reaching there about 2:30 pm, and at 3:00 pm, (after getting settled in our
hotel) we went on a sight-seeing tour of the city. The city tour took us to the famous Olympic
ski-jump (I’ve seen this very ski-jump in the James Bond movie called “For Your
Eyes Only”), and the Olympic Flame. We
took pictures of the Olympic ski-jump and Flame and, of course, Innsbruck
itself. After that, we were taken on more
of a tour of the city and we were allowed time to shop. We also took pictures of the snow in the
countryside, but it was somewhat muggy out today.
That evening, we bathed and relaxed and
then, I went upstairs in the hotel to visit briefly with the 3 Rowland women
(Voni, Irene, and Bea). Gloria and I
have become very close to them on this tour!
Today was my 29th birthday
and Lillian, our tour guide, presented me with 2 huge Swiss chocolate bars,
which I then shared with all of the other passengers on the tour! Gloria gave me a beer mug as her gift. It was really a very different and nice way
to celebrate my birthday!
Day
11 – June 9, 1981:
Today, after we got up, dressed and ate
breakfast, we took off for Venice, Italy.
Most of the day was spent driving through some of the loveliest terrain
I have ever seen! This is the Alps
Mountains! However, the mountains may or
may not come second to Switzerland, which is my favourite place, so far. We stopped for lunch at a lovely hotel on a
lovely lake (the name of the lake eludes me though) and took some
pictures. Then, we re-boarded the bus
and headed out again.
Today, it’s Tom’s birthday. He and his wife, Helen, and another couple
are from Australia and became our favourites on the bus tour. Tom is an MP in Australia. We celebrated by singing him a song and
giving him 2 cowbells. One of the
cowbells was from Gloria and I and the other was from Lillian and John (John is
our driver). He was supposed to wear a
cowbell for the rest of the tour so that he wouldn’t get lost!). Anyway, we were all laughing and joking and
singing our way through Italy, till we stopped for tea and apple strudel at a
little cafe along the way.
Finally, we arrived at our hotel (Hotel Venezia)
at about 6:30 and had dinner at about 7:00 pm.
Voni, Gloria and I met 2 other girls (who are from Toronto) in the hotel
bar downstairs before dinner and promised to meet up with them again
afterward. As it happened, Gloria went
to bed early, so Voni and I sat up with the 2 girls we’d met earlier and drank
a beer or two with them till 12:00 midnight or so, we all hit the sack to ready
ourselves for a busy day tomorrow. These
girls are named Diane and Mary, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to see them
again, as, we’re leaving tomorrow.
Day
12 – June 10, 1981:
Today, we got up early to go to Venice,
Italy on a sight-seeing tour. The guide
took us to see the Roman Catholic Baroque Church and the Bridge of Sighs, and
explained to us the history of Venice.
After that, we went to see a demonstration in the Glass-Blowing Factory
and then went into their showroom to see, and buy, some samples of glass. I ended up buying 2 amber wine goblets with
gold leaf for $51.00 Canadian!
After this tour, we had some free time,
so Irene, Voni and I went up to the top of the Bell Tower to take some pictures
of Venice. After lunch at a little
restaurant there, we met Lillian for the Gondola Serenade, which was nice (I
went with Rachel, one of our other girlfriends on the tour). But, I didn’t like that the canals were kind
of smelly, and the houses and buildings along the canals were very
dilapidated. Later, Rachel and I went
for a drink (non-alcoholic), which cost about 4,500 Lire ($4.50 CDN)! Even with a ticket from Cosmos for a
reduction in the price of drinks, we still didn’t get much of a discount.
Italy pisses me off somewhat for the
following reasons: 1) all drinks (even mineral water) cost at least 1,500 Lire
($1.50 CDN) and some are many Lire more; 2) it costs you 100 Lire just to be
able to use a washroom ($0.10 CDN); 3) the hotel would not provide us with
proper towels; and, 4) the water quit running at a very inconvenient
moment. As romantic as Venice is
portrayed to be, I dislike it intensely and do not ever intend to return
here! There is no sewage system, per se
– all sewage empties into the sea and it stinks a lot! No wonder the canals smell!
Here’s something else: there is a basin in the washroom used for
(believe it or not) washing your backside after you done your “thing” in the toilet. What do you think of that?
The people at the Hotel Venezia tried to
take away our passports and said they would return them, but everyone on the
tour got so upset about it that the hotel personnel gave them back to us right
away. Who knows what they were thinking
about us? Did we look threatening to
them?
Also, we got upset because during the
tour we were wearing shorts (because it’s like summer here), and we found out
during the city tour that the Italians don’t like women wearing shorts,
especially in churches. We also found
that some of the Italians that we encountered were nice and cute, but some were
very emotional and got very upset very easily.
So, I’m glad we’re leaving Venice tomorrow for good, and going to
Rome. I hope I like Rome a lot better
than Venice!
copyright 2014, Anne Shier. All rights reserved.
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